By Mike Matejka
As the polls jostle daily for the Iowa Presidential caucuses, it’s always a good reminder to note this is not a horse race, but a process to elect a national leader next November.
Anger is the tone of this year’s early Presidential outing. Grass-roots Republicans are angry about Obamacare, immigrants and a perceived weakness in the executive branch. Grass-roots Democrats are angry about increased inequities in wealth, rising college costs and stagnant wages. But the question we’ll have to ultimately ask ourselves, do we want a commander in chief or a ranter in chief?
President Barack Obama rose to the Presidency with a very emotional appeal to people’s better nature. Ignoring his moderate record in the Statehouse and the U.S. Senate, many on the left envisioned a redeemer with great plans. Obama himself spent his first years in office trying to reconcile and reach out to Republicans. But those early meetings soon came to naught, especially when figures like now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared from day one that his job was to put Obama out of office. In our current moneyed-fueled political mayhem, although everyone talks of compromise and working together, compromise usually means unconditional surrender by the other side.
The visceral, emotional channeling that a Donald Trump brings has nothing to do with policy or the nation’s direction, but all with an angry electorate enjoying someone upsetting the apple cart. What would a President Trump do? Who knows, because Donald Trump is playing a reality TV show that zoomed high in the ratings. Now Republicans have to ask themselves, do they have enough organization to fire Donald Trump, or will these madcap theatrics be still pulling top ratings next fall? On the left, with more nuance and actual proposals, but still anger at an economic system that is leaving people behind, can self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders actually lead an electoral revolution against an economic system that is weighted toward the top 1 percent of the 1 percent?
All this makes for great TV now; after Labor Day, the electorate tends to be more cautious and asks, “can this person actually lead us and do anything in the next four years? Right now might be the time for some wild and crazy dates, but before we commit to marriage, we the people must ask some hard questions.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Bloomington with his wife and daughter and their two dogs. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media, Inc.
